{"id":164,"date":"2024-09-28T13:31:05","date_gmt":"2024-09-28T13:31:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mylegacyden.com\/joedifalco\/diligence-produces-results\/"},"modified":"2024-09-28T13:31:17","modified_gmt":"2024-09-28T13:31:17","slug":"diligence-produces-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mylegacyden.com\/joedifalco\/diligence-produces-results\/","title":{"rendered":"Diligence Produces Results"},"content":{"rendered":"
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God wants you to bear fruit<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In his second letter, Peter has some incredible insight into bearing fruit.<\/p>\n

Spiritual fruit that is.<\/p>\n

God wants all of His children to be productive and successful.<\/p>\n

2 Peter 1:5-8<\/h2>\n

KJV<\/h4>\n

5<\/strong>\u00a0And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;\u00a06<\/strong>\u00a0And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;\u00a07<\/strong>\u00a0And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.\u00a08<\/strong>\u00a0For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall\u00a0neither be barren nor unfruitful<\/strong>\u00a0in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

NLT (New Living Translation)<\/h4>\n
5<\/strong>\u00a0In view of all this, make every effort [diligence] to respond to God\u2019s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge,\u00a06<\/strong>\u00a0and knowledge with self-control [temperance], and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness,\u00a07<\/strong>\u00a0and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.\u00a08\u00a0The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be<\/strong>\u00a0in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.<\/div>\n
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________<\/p>\n

These verses from Peter tell us that if we diligently seek after God (knowledge), add in temperance and godliness, we will be productive and useful.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at the meaning of diligence, temperance and godliness.<\/p>\n

Diligence<\/h4>\n

1<\/strong>\u00a0steady, earnest, and energetic effort : devoted and painstaking work and application to accomplish an undertaking<\/p>\n

2<\/strong>\u00a0the attention and care legally expected or required of a person (such as a party to a contract)<\/p>\n

Temperance<\/h4>\n

1<\/strong>\u00a0moderation in action, thought, or feeling :\u00a0RESTRAINT<\/strong><\/p>\n

Godliness<\/h4>\n

1<\/strong>\u00a0the quality or\u00a0practice<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0of conforming to the\u00a0laws and wishes of God<\/strong>; devoutness and moral uprightness<\/p>\n

What does Jesus say about the laws of God?<\/h4>\n

Matthew 22 36-40<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

36<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cTeacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?\u201d<\/p>\n

37<\/strong>\u00a0Jesus replied:\u00a0Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.\u00a038<\/strong>\u00a0This is the first and greatest commandment.\u00a039<\/strong>\u00a0And the second is like it: \u2018Love your neighbor as yourself.\u00a040<\/strong>\u00a0All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.<\/p>\n

First, notice that Godliness is the\u00a0practice<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>of conforming\u2026practice<\/strong><\/em>. This says to me that we will always be practicing\u2026never perfect.<\/p>\n

I have never known God to require anything of us that is very complicated. (difficult maybe, but complicated\u2026no<\/em>) He definitely knows that our\u00a0puny mortal minds have limited capacity<\/strong>. So, to follow the laws of God \u2013 in a nutshell \u2013 Jesus lays it all out pretty plainly.<\/p>\n

Once we commit to\u00a0loving God<\/strong>\u00a0with our whole heart, everything else we do in this life should be directed with\u00a0loving others\u00a0<\/strong>in mind. If an action or words from your mouth promotes love to others\u2026go for it. If it does not\u2026do not.<\/p>\n

As I think about the various decisions I face every day I attempt to ask myself, does my choice\u00a0honor God<\/strong>? \u2026does it\u00a0show love<\/strong>\u00a0for my fellow man?<\/p>\n

I really don\u2019t think He meant for this to be too difficult to understand.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

God wants you to bear fruit In his second letter, Peter has some incredible insight into bearing fruit. Spiritual fruit that is. God wants all of His children to be productive and successful. 2 Peter 1:5-8 KJV 5\u00a0And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;\u00a06\u00a0And to knowledge temperance; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tld_youtube_id":"","tld_audio":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wisdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mylegacyden.com\/joedifalco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mylegacyden.com\/joedifalco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mylegacyden.com\/joedifalco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mylegacyden.com\/joedifalco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mylegacyden.com\/joedifalco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mylegacyden.com\/joedifalco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":166,"href":"https:\/\/mylegacyden.com\/joedifalco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164\/revisions\/166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mylegacyden.com\/joedifalco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mylegacyden.com\/joedifalco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mylegacyden.com\/joedifalco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}